Review: Real Racing for iPhone, iPod touch
There are a lot of racing games out there for your Apple handheld, but only a few of them are worth your time or money. Real Racing is a glowing exception with its excellent community features, earn as you learn in-game upgrades and beautiful graphics.
One of the best entertainment apps of 2009, a winner of the IGF Mobile (Technical Achievement) and IMGA (Excellence in Connectivity) awards, Real Racing ($4.99, iTunes) from Firemint joins the fine detail Gran Turismo, without the fiddly obsessiveness of that title, and the pick-up-and-play ease of lesser games in a single package.
You can tweak how much control have over your car, tweaking the auto-breaking from the game’s overly cautious default setting, for example. Thereupon, you can finely tune control from full auto to full manual, though you’ll want to play through a few quick start races before you get busy with changing how the games plays and probably want to adjust controls individually.
— 48 cars in four class, 12 unique, five game modes
— three divisions to play to through
— Massive career mode with 76 events
— Local multiplayer supporting up to six players (over wi-fi)
— Select your favorite songs from personal music library while racing (requires iPhone OS 3.0)
— Six cars on screen
— Touch or tilt to steer
— Manual or automatic accelerations and braking
— In-car cockpit view or external camera
— Online league play and leaderboards
— Video replays on YouTube (user created and uploadable content)
— Create personal leaderboards at www.cloudcell.comSee also: Real Racing (website)
Equally important, is the ability to play whatever music you want with any music available in your iTunes music library. That said, Crystal Method’s Dubelicious Groove playing over in-ear plugs — you really owe to yourself to use quality buds of some kind — is the perfect accompaniment.
However, for those iPod touch owners that still haven’t upgraded to iPhone OS 3.x, you’ll need to break down and give Apple that lousy $5 — yes, you get improved search, a better version of Safari and widescreen typing for “free.”
Also, the multiplayer functionality just rocks and you can be set to play against your friends in about 30 seconds.
Lastly, because this game requires you to master certain to gain new cars and access tougher tracks, there’s plenty of headroom for learning and growth. Further, the excellent community racing functionality, means that even after you’ve learned everything, there’s still plenty of fun to had racing in a league and pushing you skills against the ultimate AI — primates of a feather.
If you’re looking for a fun, ready to play anytime game that’s just as good head-to-head as it is solo, then Real Racing might be just what you’re looking for. It’s only $4.99 — there’s also Real Racing GTI, a free and limited version available — and worth every penny…
What’s your take?
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